Fusenews: Blogging Vs. Sandwich. Blogging Wins!

Not having internet in the home cramps my style. So if this is all out-of-date, forgive me. My lunchtime has now turned into my blogging time.

I feel as if the economic crisis has resulted in more and more people talking to me about applying to library school. It’s an interesting trend, and I’m sure that there may be a couple of you out there thinking to yourselves, "Why not? It’s a good job, right? Good benefits. And I get to work with books." Indeed you do. However, before you go much further, I urge you to take a long hard look at this Fact Sheet that discusses Library Workers: Facts and Figures from 2009. The report was created by The Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) and contains such true, if somewhat shocking, statistics as "the current population of librarians is aging; 58% of librarians in the U.S. are projected to reach the retirement age of 65 between 2005 and 2019."

Recently there was a New York Times article about the fate of Tintin in the Congo and what the Brooklyn Public Library system did with it. NYPL will never have to deal with this issue due to the simple fact that we don’t even carry the book in the first place (except for a single solitary original 1959 French edition that has mysteriously been "checked out" in spite of the fact that it’s a reference copy). Lee Wind discusses the issue of librarians limiting access to controversial materials.

Since setting up a Twitter account I’ve found that though I don’t tweet as much as the next fellow, I do find it a useful source of bloggable information. Writers like it too, it seems. In fact, there’s a more than rather useful site that actual makes a point of compiling the best links via Twitter each and every week. Called Best Tweets for Writers, the site updates itself every weekend. Thanks to @mitaliperkins for the link.

New Blog Alert: I’ve a new and fellow NYC blogger on my radar now. Rebecca Searle is the founder of Nurturing Narratives, a company that runs storytelling/narrative-building sessions for children ages 3-6. The blog describes itself as, "a place to write and dialogue about stories, storytellers, literacy and all things related (which in my opinion includes a great many things!)." Recent posts have included a fine and fancy roundup of Rebecca’s top five summer children’s lit reads and the advantages of various journals.

I read with interest the recent New Yorkerarticle on the Kindle and its many flaws and problems. The standard line in our industry is that while eBooks for children’s novels may come to prominence at some point, the picture book is without parallel. That doesn’t stop various publishers from trying to get theirs out there first, though. When I returned from vacation I found that my inbox contained two press releases from small publishers announcing their new ventures into ebook land. Winged Chariot has created an iPhone app that allows you to download picture books for a mere 59p (it’s a European publisher normally, so you can translate the cost accordingly). Sylvan Dell, on their end, has introduced new eBooks with Operating Instructions and instructions on How To Use Sylvan Dell eBooks in the Classroom on their site. I maintain the belief that this will get use insofar as graduate students need to do projects on picture books, but from a practical standpoint paper has nothing to fear quite yet.

Under normal circumstances when I go on vacation I remember to inform the world beforehand "Nobody interesting die." I forgot this time and it shows. This is a true pity. I was very fond of Karla Kuskin’s books, and we simply cannot keep The Philharmonic Gets Dressed on the shelf, even though it’s a good 27 years old. Thanks to Read Roger for the link.

Oh, heavens! At first I thought that our homegrown Egmont had lured away Mr. Snicket when they announced that they’d be publishing his new series. However, readers who actually go past the titles of articles pointed out to me that, in fact, it was Snicket’s British publisher had announced the new series. There was, as far as we could tell, no luring involved. And Monica found two other news sources reporting on the surprise. Phew! Thanks to Educating Alice for the links.

Elizabeth Bird is currently New York Public Library's Youth Materials Collections Specialist. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of NYPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

I just love that I can write picture book title in-jokes and people will get them. It gets particularly bad when, in my daily conversations, I start doing in-jokes that refer to the interior text of the picture books I like to read aloud during storytime. It’s like I’m speaking in code after a while.

Librarians aren’t retiring at 65. Nobody is left that CAN retire at 65. The Social Security rules moved the age up. A lot of us are eligible at 66, tho. And most of us aint’a leaving because of the economy. Once we can expect a decent retirement again, then you’ll see a lot of librarian jobs open up. But getting the degree is probably a good idea so you can be ready to grab those positions.

Darn, I was so sure that the candle tatoo referred to his book, “A Light in the Attic.”

The Invitation poem reminded me of a song from he 60s. A lot of singers in the 60s and 70s put Shel’s poetry to music in those days. (most notably, “I’m being eaten by a boa constrictor.”) -wendieO

A clarification/correction: from what I read in PW, Egmont in England is publishing the new Lemony Snicket series. Not Egmont U.S.A. Egmont in England was already publisher of the previous Snicket books. So I dont think there was any ‘luring away’. The US publisher hasn’t been announced yet.

Podcasty Goodness

About A Fuse #8 Production

Features everything from librarian previews of upcoming children's books to news, reviews, and videos. If it has something to do with children's literature, it will rate a mention here.

Betsy Bird is the Youth Materials Specialist of New York Public Library. She's reviewed for The New York Times and Kirkus, writes articles for Horn Book and SLJ, and wrote the picture book Giant Dance Party. You can contact her at Fusenumber8@gmail.com or follow her on . . .